I'll have to try to catch up on all the posts! I had an episode at lunch on Sunday where I passed out momentarily, got all out of breath and woozy, with chest pains. It started happening in the evening again so I went to the hospital. Diagnosis was arrhythmia and bradycardia. They wanted to check for blockages but my insurance pays 80% and I don't think I could handle the rest just now. Plus, I have fragile veins and I have to fly to the grandbabies on Wednesday. I saw my family doc and she's cool with waiting for all those invasive tests. She also agreed with me that it could have been caused by the aspartame I had two hours earlier.

Back on Stillmans on Tuesday after getting out of the hospital on Monday!
Today and tomorrow are Atkins days for me.

The Canada trip is going to be tough trying to stay on plan, I guess I'll just try to eat as healthy as I can and make sure I have protein snacks to substitute for junk food.

I'll have to try to catch up on all the posts! I had an episode at lunch on Sunday where I passed out momentarily, got all out of breath and woozy, with chest pains. It started happening in the evening again so I went to the hospital. Diagnosis was arrhythmia and bradycardia. They wanted to check for blockages but my insurance pays 80% and I don't think I could handle the rest just now. Plus, I have fragile veins and I have to fly to the grandbabies on Wednesday. I saw my family doc and she's cool with waiting for all those invasive tests. She also agreed with me that it could have been caused by the aspartame I had two hours earlier.

Back on Stillmans on Tuesday after getting out of the hospital on Monday!
Today and tomorrow are Atkins days for me.

The Canada trip is going to be tough trying to stay on plan, I guess I'll just try to eat as healthy as I can and make sure I have protein snacks to substitute for junk food.

Oh my! Please take good care of yourself! Have fun visiting the grandbabies! Eat the best you can and relax!

Can someone please tell me where my watch is? I remember taking it off in a place where I don't usually take my watch off! I remember thinking it was a bad idea but that I would remember where I put it. I don't. So, can someone please tell me where it is?

This weekend has been my first off in ages!! There was a Mardi-Gras type thing on in the town today. I've eaten so much in the last few days--oopsie!! I've just eaten a huge donut--and I don't even particularly like them!! But everyone else was having them....yes I know, as my Mum would say, so if everyone was eating poison you'd have some too, would you??!! And on Thursday I was just so tired at work (I was there 3 hrs after I was meant to finish) and I was having a hard time from my boss, so I ate a apple cinamon muffin----it was gooooood!!! That was real comfort eating! Things are supposed to better this week so I'll be 100% back on plan, I'm boiling eggs as I type! And I'll have more woking out time too-yay! I really feel the change in my body when I don't work out---wobbley!!

__________________
Nothing tastes as good as thin feels!(not even chocolate!)

Ah I'm so embarrassed. This weekend has been a non stop binge for me. Its just remarkably difficult for me to stop 4 yr long binge eating habit. Its terrible, the cravings just build and build, and I lose it. I literally wait until everyone's asleep, and then I do my secret "thing". So its not even a matter of waiting. Yesterday night, I was working, then waited 2 hours from 11 pm to 1 am to binge. I don't know what to say. I seriously forget how last summer I was able to resist each and every time. I'm beyond disappointment, I realize I need to change my mindset to make myself strong enough to resist temptation. I don't know what to do with myself, I'm definitely not in that state of mind yet. Anyone ever struggle with binge eating? I really need help. Thanks.
But its not as if I buy junk and binge. No, I live with my family, and I'm constantly surrounded by everything off this diet, so convenient, right?
Do you girls think its time for me to get professional help?

CC, I think I was in ketosis, because it was my 5th day already. Does ketosis have something to do with it? I always go for really starchy and fatty foods (like cheesecake and pasta). I think I probably got triggered when I went to visit my dad, I'm always really tempted when I'm at his place, because there's so much off-limits food! I think next time I visit, I should just leave the freezer shut and not even look inside, because all the tempting foods are in there. I should probably also find a good book to read or work on some knitting to prevent myself from being too bored. Some underlying reasons are probably deprivation, some frustration at myself for my continuous weight battle, etc.
Looking back, I should probably just try my hardest to get through the beginning, I recall I seem to get used to the diet awhile and even have to really try to resist temptation after 2 weeks or so.

For me, it's an all or nothing game. Meaning, once I read on how carbs are pretty much poison to the human body and observed for a fact the improvements in my health over the last year or so that you, or at least I, can't go back.

That doesn't mean you can't visit once in awhile, but carbs will never be a part of my lifestyle again.

Last week I was looking in the pantry at the last of the split peas and the hambone leftover from a ham. So I made some split pea soup. I had about 1 cup and an hour later had raving heartburn. Today I was so cold I heated some up to get warm. After about six spoonfuls I dumped it all in the compost. Just not worth it.

What you have described is not binge eating IMHO, hiding in a closet gorging to the point of bursting again and again. I would call it a time out or an off day. You weren't in your safe place where you controlled the food choices.

Temptation will always be there in some form for everyone. In time you will learn to choose your battles or let things roll.

Part of reshaping your diet and lifestyle is food memories, the comforting sensation of how good things used to taste. Once you are carb free somehow they just don't taste the same. They still may taste good, but it's like that first crack high that you never experience again...

My mother and I used Stillman's a few times in my junior year of high school. I always had quick results (usually losing 7 pounds in 10 days). I never stayed on it longer than 10 days. I would get up to 145 (at 5'6"), use Stillman's to get back to 138, and settle for that.

I tried Atkins once or twice in my twenties, but couldn't stay on it more than 3 days. I don't recall where I got my info on it, but I don't remember being allowed vegetables. I would eat steak, eggs, butter, and cream in my coffee, end up craving lettuce and fruit...for some reason I did not think I could have even a lettuce leaf to help with the cravings...then I would binge a couple of days and end up weighing more than before I started.

In the intervening years (decades) I discovered juice fasting, and used that to get back to 130'ish whenever I would hit 145'ish. I would eat mostly whole foods in between, gaining again whenever I got too relaxed around food.

Last summer, on my last juice fast I lost 16 pounds in 19 days, spent the time that I wasn't eating reading diet blogs (Paleo, body recomposition, it is ultimately all about calories, etc) and decided to try to find my supposed "balanced diet caloric maintenance level" by counting calories, exercising a ton and eating a supposedly healthy balanced diet (lean meats, whole grains, legumes, fruits, veggies, olive oil). I was starving for 3 months (seriously, juice fasting was easier - at least with fasting your hunger goes away). I was averaging 1350 calories per day and just maintaining. I spent some time over at ************ and read all about how I've ruined my metabolism by fasting, that you can't let yourself go into "starvation mode" - if you aren't losing 1-2 pounds per week when eating 13 calories per pound, you are probably eating more than you think, or maybe you are eating too little, or somehow the calories from fat count differently from the calories in grains. It all made me crazy (and did I mention I was starving?)

Then last November I heard about Joel Furhman's Eat To Live - all you can eat of fruit, low carb veggies and legumes, with some healthy fats and a small amount of starchy vegetables. Strict vegan had never appealed to me, but I love fruits and vegetables, and liked the whole foods side of it, and liked the all you can eat aspect. Following his program with a healthy fear of legumes helped me quickly lose the 4 pounds I gained in September and October from my revolt from calorie counting. It was a lot easier than I expected - I never had to go hungry (I don't do well hungry). But then life got stressful, I got distracted and I took Dr. Furhman at his word that you really can eat unlimited amounts of legumes because their starch is "special". I went from eating half a cup of black beans per day to eating one and one half cups per day and gained the 4 pounds back plus a few.

Still looking for a way to get and stay slim without going hungry.

In January 2012, I ran across a more modern writeup of Atkins that allows a fair amount of vegetables, and just completed an entire week of Induction. I lost 2.5 pounds (not as quick as many folks report, but way faster than starving on a 1200 calorie balanced diet). But then Super Bowl Sunday came and my skinny husband decided pizza and beer go better with football than Mongolian Beef wrapped in lettuce leaves (a dinner he had been requesting all week). 3 pounds back.

I know, its just water. I know, I could have let him eat pizza while I stuck with my original plan, but it would have made him sad. I could have eaten a big salad with a few pizza toppings, but I don't have that much will power when changes spring up. So I've decided that weekend eating with my husband is going to undo any progress I can make during the week with Atkins. Then I remembered how much quicker the Stillman diet was, started googling and found you.

I am happy to find folks who still know about Stillman and who sound so supportive of each other. You have some amazingly inspiring stories.

I decided to try Stillman's for a few days during the week (for quick, hunger-free fat loss) with a few days of Atkins (for fat, fun and veggies) with a few bites of whatever my husband wants for dinner on the weekends. I will also try to find the Dukan book at my library (mmm...Greek yogurt).

In bed-work is still crazy. Will it ever end?????? On the plus side I'm actually 'penciling in' workout time like an appointment and sticking to it. Even if either of my bosses want me to work. I switch the fone off too. So even if the college is burning down--tough!!!!! As selfish as it sounds I need the 'me' time, and it keeps me out of jail on a homocide charge!! Hee!! Nite nite! Oh and I've booked a nice long facial for Friday morning--soooo looking forward to it!!!

__________________
Nothing tastes as good as thin feels!(not even chocolate!)

prepare for the end early, it will save a lot of confusion later..........

LIVING WILL

I, _____________, being of sound mind and body, do not wish to be kept alive indefinitely by artificial means.. Under no circumstances should my fate be put in the hands of pinhead partisan politicians who couldn't pass ninth-grade biology if their lives depended on it, or lawyers/doctors/hospitals interested in simply running up the bills.
If a reasonable amount of time passes, and I fail to ask for at least one of the following:
______ a Manhattan ______ a Margarita ____ a Scotch and soda ______ a Bloody Mary ______ a Gin and Tonic _______ a Tee Time ______ a Steak ______ Lobster Tail ______ the remote control ______ a bowl of ice cream ______ the sports page______ sex ______ or chocolate, It should be presumed that I won't ever get any better. When such a determination is reached, I hereby instruct my appointed person and attending physicians to pull the plug, reel in the tubes, and call it a day. At this point, it is time to call the New Orleans Jazz Funeral Band to come do their thing at my funeral and ask all of my friends to raise their glasses and remember all the good times we had.

Signature:__________________________ Date: _________________________

NOTE: I also hear that in Ireland they have a Nursing Home with a Pub. The patients are happier and they have a lot more visitors. Some of them don't even need embalming when their time comes.If anyone knows the name of this happy place, PLEASE send me the data so I can pre-register.

In bed-work is still crazy. Will it ever end?????? On the plus side I'm actually 'penciling in' workout time like an appointment and sticking to it. Even if either of my bosses want me to work. I switch the fone off too. So even if the college is burning down--tough!!!!! As selfish as it sounds I need the 'me' time, and it keeps me out of jail on a homocide charge!! Hee!! Nite nite! Oh and I've booked a nice long facial for Friday morning--soooo looking forward to it!!!